Fontaines D.C. have signed to XL for a new album, Romance, set for release on August 23. The announcement comes with a new single, “Starburster”; check out the Aube Perrie–directed video, in which a wounded Grian Chatten goes about his everyday business, sometimes in a prosthetic mask, below. It is the band’s first LP with producer James Ford, who has recently worked with Arctic Monkeys and Blur.

In a press release, guitarist Conor Deegan said of the album title, “We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance. Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as Dogrel. The second album is about that detachment, and the third is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.”

Chatten went on to cite the romantic undertones of the dystopian anime Akira as an inspiration. “I’m fascinated by that—falling in love at the end of the world,” he says. “The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger Armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes.” Other influences noted in the press release include Shygirl, Sega Bodega, A$AP Ferg, and the Prodigy.

Romance follows 2022’s Skinty Fia. Chatten wrote “Starbuster” about a panic attack he had in St. Pancras train station in London, according to a press release.

Fontaines D.C.: Romance

$27 at Rough Trade

$27 at Amazon

Romance:

01 Romance
02 Starburster
03 Here’s the Thing
04 Desire
05 In the Modern World
06 Bug
07 Motorcycle Boy
08 Sundowner
09 Horseness Is the Whatness
10 Death Kink
11 Favourite